UNT | University of North Texas

Project Brief

Stantec was developing a full masterplan for the University of North Texas campus, to be presented to the university board and president. The visuals needed to communicate the vision clearly and win the board's go ahead.

Challenges

Two earlier sets of visuals had failed to meet the client's vision. The photorealistic renders read as too prescriptive, suggesting design decisions that may not come to fruition. The simplified diagrams felt too loose, described as "too cartoony". A third approach was needed, and with two iterations already exhausted, time and budget was narrow.

Outcome

A member of a US based Stantec team reached out to me for help. The brief sat on a blurred line, so I leaned into my own experience to try and understand what the client was really after and why previous iterations hadn't hit home: what did we need to communicate, who was the target audience, and how should the place feel? I developed a hand-drawn style in Procreate on the iPad, that was clearly conceptual yet remained credible and considered. The client was very happy with the direction, and it was the approach the masterplan was presented with.